Comparing obesity to smoking, she calls on Americans to start regarding obesity as a "personal habit, one that deserves to get taxed, regulated and shunned by society and lawmakers alike. She also has no qualms about their raising insurance premiums—"it's bad for all of us," she writes.

Here's more:

"There are lots of public health measures that could make a dent in rates of obesity. For instance, we could tax sugar-sweetened drinks, a tactic Denmark is trying. But in the United States, critics argue that the occasional Slurpee (all 325 calories of it) won’t make you gain weight and so a tax would infringe on the rights of responsible 7-Eleven diners and create a 'nanny state.'”

Read Brownlee's provocative essay, in which she argues Americans are too passive to "shame" the obese the way we demonize smokers, here.